Settlers in Gaza stone Palestinian
Chicago Tribune
Date: 06-30-05
By Joel Greenberg Tribune foreign correspondent
Militant Jewish settlers seriously wounded a Palestinian youth in a stone-throwing clash Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, and rightist protesters opposed to Israel's planned withdrawal from the area blocked several highways across the country before they were hauled off by police.
The confrontations reflected mounting tensions as the planned withdrawal, set for mid-August, draws nearer.
In a flare-up of fighting along the border with Lebanon, an Israeli soldier and a guerrilla from the Hezbollah group were killed, and three other Israelis were wounded, the army said.
The violence in the Gaza Strip erupted near a vacant Palestinian house taken over by the settlers, many of them extremist youths from West Bank settlements who have come to Gaza to help resist the planned withdrawal.
The youths had turned the three-story house into a makeshift outpost, raising a flag of the banned anti-Arab Kach party and daubing the words "Muhammad is a pig" high on a wall, a reference to the Prophet Muhammad.
According to reports from the scene, the Jewish militants went on a stone-throwing spree after Israeli troops and police raided the building and arrested nine people suspected of involvement in previous clashes.
The settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the surrounding al-Mawasi area, residents said, drawing volleys of stones from Palestinians. Israeli soldiers fired several shots in the air in a futile attempt to stop the fighting.
One Palestinian youth was wounded in the head by a rock, and as he lay senseless on the ground, young settlers ran up and stoned him at close range while an Israeli soldier tried to shield him.
"Don't touch him, let him die," shouted one settler in footage of the assault shown on Israeli television. The Palestinian, who was seriously injured, was moved away by soldiers and transferred to a hospital in Khan Yunis.
Four other Palestinians were reported injured. A settler and a soldier were lightly hurt, the army said.
Hours after the clash, Israeli police and soldiers evicted the 30 settlers holed up in the Palestinian house. The army said it acted because of a credible threat of an attack on the building by Palestinian militants.
In Israel, demonstrators, many of them teenagers and children, intermittently blocked several highways and junctions in a protest against the Gaza withdrawal organized by a group called The National Home.
Police used water cannon to disperse protesters at the entrance to Jerusalem, where the road was briefly blocked. Among the demonstrators sitting on the street was a young mother, her baby strapped to her chest.
Protesters also blocked the Tel Aviv freeway and a major junction in Haifa before they were cleared by police officers.
More than 130 people were arrested, the police said.
Earlier in the day, extremists scattered nails and oil on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, but the action was condemned by The National Home and leaders of the settlers, who have called for a campaign of non-violent resistance to the pullout.
On the border with Lebanon, Hezbollah guerrillas fired mortars at Israeli army positions in Shebaa Farms, at the northern edge of the Israeli-held Golan Heights, after a clash in which a guerrilla was killed and an Israeli officer was lightly wounded, the army said.
An army spokeswoman said a Hezbollah squad had crossed the frontier into Israeli-controlled territory, but the militant group said it had responded after Israeli soldiers crossed into Lebanon.
An Israeli soldier was killed in the mortar attack and two were lightly wounded. Israeli forces responded with artillery fire and air strikes on Hezbollah positions, the army said.
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jogreenberg@tribune.com
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